Hollywood Mall Sears To Close Company Building Larger Store At Pembroke Lakes Mall

July 3, 1992|By DAVID ALTANER, Business Writer

Sears, Roebuck & Co. announced on Thursday that it will close its Hollywood Mall store at the same time that it opens a new, larger store planned for the Pembroke Lakes Mall in Pembroke Pines.

The move means that the new mall is continuing to sap some of the life out of Hollywood retailing.

J.C. Penney Co. has already said it will close its store at Hollywood Fashion Center, not far from Hollywood Mall, when Pembroke Lakes opens. Burdines is also at the Fashion Center, and plans to open a store at Pembroke Lakes. The company hasn`t announced its plans for the Hollywood store.

The new Sears store will be about 143,000 square feet, and the mall is expected to open in late September or early October, said Sears spokesman Gordon Jones. Jones said the Hollywood Mall store employees would be offered jobs at the new store. He had no number for final employment at the store.

The older store is being closed because of ``duplication in the market,`` he said.

``We felt with the new store being more modern, we didn`t need two in the market.``

The new store will include an 18-bay automotive repair center.

The new mall is being built by the Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. and Homart Development Co., which is a unit of Sears. Sears also has a store at Aventura Mall in northern Dade County.

The Hollywood Mall Sears store was built in 1964 and it anchors the mall, along with a Publix that is being renovated at the site. The mall is east of Presidential Circle on Hollywood Boulevard.

The mall is being renovated to add some shops and move a Rite Aid drugstore.

At Hollywood Inc., the mall owner, no one was available on Thursday to comment on the news from Sears.

At the Radio Shack at the mall, store employee Esteban Montoya said he was sad, but not surprised, to see the Sears store closing, and he was looking forward to the reopening of the Publix store. ``That will help the whole mall.`` Sears is also planning to open a store at the Boynton Beach Mall in about two weeks.